User blog:Wyvern Rex./In which the Wyvern provides readers with a fair and unbiased view of the Anti-Shurtugal movement...
There have been many, varied and wrong criticisms of the Inheritance Cycle. Here I shall analyse them. Feel free to suggest any that I may have missed. Linguistics The linguistics have been claimed to closely resemble the Quenya or Sindarin of Tolkien. Remember, there are only so many things you can do with a language devised to hurl defiance at the raiders attacking your village, or Old Norse as it is more commonly known. Beor is bear in both, for example, and no amount of impassioned typing will change that. Others have claimed that words such as Islanzadí look out of place. Ah, so you want to have your cake AND eat it(but not that order, as that is quite possible). Firstly you wish an author to design a completely new language from scratch(Something that not even Tolkien, the veritable patron saint of fantasy authors, could manage.), and then you hurl abuse when they are forced to actually invent new words for unique concepts. Have you tried language design? Most end up with a bland, toneless Newspeak. Paolini retains the fluid tones of an almost organically-grown tongue, which it is, not being produced by the armchair critic. This of course does not even begin to describe the sheer slack-jawed controversy over Orik's line of "Mine king, Hrothgar". Hey, Orik puts "mine" before a consonant! LOL! (maybe even XD, it could be that kind of evening) Aren't Dwarves allowed a dialect? The ending of Eragon He wouldn't do that, because almost every book except for 1984 has a happy ending. Do you realise that authors wish to sell books rather than just produce something completely original and unread out of the goodness of their own hearts? As my esteemed Inheriwiki associate Fallen 62 adds, the essential plotlines can be divided into a number of set types, of which "The Hero's Journey" lends itself most readily to fantasy. The writer also suggests having the "Elves and Dwarves fighting a pointless guerilla war, the Elves get killed and the Dwarves get a small independent kingdom". Isn't that just genocide, possibly motivated by the Elves agnosticism? Warfare Others still claim that wars in Inheritance are unrealistic(Oh, so you expect Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but with dragons?). Siege weapons? A shocking error, unless of course you are using them in a similar manner to the Romans who once pinned a Gallic warleader to a tree with a well aimed ballista shot! Or claiming that war is glorified by Paolini: Enough said. Du Sundavar Freohr Ah, I thought I had got out this. Apart from the way in which the names are used in a manner quite different from their Tolkien incarnation, could it be the case that they are homages rather than thefts? Would he steal terminology just to use it for an unnamed lake of no significance? The Palencar Valley is named after John Jude Palencar. Surely it is appalling that he can continue to illustrate for Paolini when his name has been stolen? Saphira's Egg Again, this handy plot device has been the subject of criticism. For the newer readers, the plot runs thussly: #The elves need to transport the egg from their forest to the rebel humans, so that they can each attempt to find the rider for the dragon within (the dragon will hatch if it finds someone it likes). #The evil Empire want the egg so that they can hatch it themselves, so they ambush the elves. #The only surviving elf tries to teleport the egg to a former Dragon Rider, but it gets lost. The problems are entirely in stage three. In a later book, another Rider (Oromis) tells Eragon that teleportation requires the same amount of energy regardless of distance. Let's ask those pertinent questions: Q: Can you teleport in and out of Du Weldenvarden? : A: Not really. But if Islanzadí's daughter doesn't know how to bend the rules on occasion... Q: Why didn't they just send the egg to the Varden rebels without making the journey? : A: Again a good point. How do you know if the teleportation is secure though? What could stop the Empire from sending an override through the ether? Also, how accurate would it be long distance? A small error could put it in the Beor Mountains, or the sea, or both at the same time. Even when sent to the nearby Brom, it was wildly off course and was only found by luck. Science, religion and all the other conflicts Dispatching quickly: *Orrin's experiments were quite possible (See the works of monk Roger Bacon.) but our society was less advanced by the religious supression of heretical views in the Middle Ages. Bacon himself was imprisoned for his work. *There is no state religion in the Empire but Heslant is burnt as a heretic. This, I expect, was on Galbatorix's part an attempt to please the worshippers of Helgrind (Oh, and as for their cathedral, some terms have to be approximated to an Earth equivalent.). *Garrow's wealth: One of the more valid points. However, we don't know a great deal of Garrow's life before. Maybe he was once rich enough to buy their house, but no longer. *I won't touch on the ludicous rounded-up years and same-spring debate, but I will say that Arya could have sent the invitation from outside of Du Weldenvarden. Also, Brom could ave made the memory while Eragon was unconcious, and this is implied. *Arya's leather suit could be made in a different way. She puts a Gyrfalcon (Yes, I've linked to Gyrfalcon at last!) out of its misery happily, so the same could happen with the cow. *Sloan's shop: yes, it is clean inside. That's because he sweeps it out onto the street. Mr Paolini himself Here is the'' true'' root of their problems. Paolini had his book published first by his parents, and then by Knopf. The fact that he spent years touring to promote the book has somehow slipped their minds. Yes, he didn't have to rewrite it, and even the greatest fan will admit that it is slightly unpolished in places, but maybe they liked it as it was? I continue to notice that many critics are bitter about the failings of their own fantasy writings. Paolini is a major author and is sill alive (unlike Tolkien). By criticising him and paying lip service to "Saint" Tolkien and "Saint" Lucas, they seem to be expressing a dislike of fantasy as a whole. Twillight should never have got off the press, but does it deserve'' all'' of the vitriol it recieves? No! It is being attacked by hundreds of unsucessful and jealous vampire novelists. Finally... Yes, I will admit it. I was Anti-Shurtugal once. That was the fault of the film though. When I read the book, I found one of the most enticing fantasy worlds yet envisioned. I will let you have the pleasure of deciding for yourself. Category:Blog posts Category:Blog posts